LAVENDER MAFIA: The 8oo Pound Gorilla in the Vatican

WHY THE GAY LOBBY REMAINS IN POWER

by Ryan Fitzgerald • ChurchMilitant.com

It has various names — the Homosexual Network, the Lavender Mafia, the Gay Lobby — but whatever you call it, most people — inside or outside the Church — have never heard of it and would probably call you a crazy “homophobic” bigot for even entertaining its existence as a possibility.

Despite the fact that some of the Church’s highest ranks have spoken of it and investigated its depth, this powerful association of homosexual infiltrators has managed to maintain a relatively low profile. There are several likely reasons for how that’s been possible, and key among them is that a lot of the people who are close enough to know it and expose it are afraid of the consequences. These consequences range from loss of employment to ecclesiastical penalties to potentially murder. It is this sort of intimidation that explains why the apparent cabal of sodomites in the Archdiocese of New York has operated under the radar for so long, and why the archdiocesan employee who spoke to ChurchMilitant.com about it had to remain anonymous.

For an idea of what can be expected when the Gay Lobby is exposed, let’s look at some of the tragic events that have immediately fallen on those who have spoken out about the corruption.

1. Fr. John Minkler

In 2004, Bp. Howard Hubbard of Albany, New York, was the center of a series of investigations. Three different sources were identifying the long-time spiritual leader of New York’s capital city as guilty of violating his vow of celibacy with a string of sodomy and abuse. Of the three sources, by the time of the investigation, two were already dead from apparent suicides. The one remaining source who was still alive was Anthony Bonneau, a former prostitute who said Bp. Hubbard had solicited sex with him in the 1970s.

Another source was Thomas Zalay, whose brother Andrew charged Bp. Hubbard with sexually abusing Thomas for years. According to Andrew, Thomas had written a suicide note that recounted a perverse relationship with the bishop. The note read in part:

Howard explains that his role as bishop and his vows of celibacy are not involved because the Bible describes celibacy as being free of women. I do not and have not considered myself homosexual but maintaining this relationship serves spiritual purposes.

Thomas went on to write that Bp. Hubbard had “unfairly used his position [as bishop] to get what he wants” from him. Further, Thomas mentioned “sexual acts” that he was “compelled to endure.” Thirteen months after Hubbard was made a bishop, Thomas was dead after a fire that was confined to his room, which his family maintains was a suicide after what they suspected for a while was a gay relationship between him and the bishop.

The third source was Fr. John Minkler, who in February 2004 was named as the author of a 1995 letter to Cdl. John O’Connor, archbishop of New York, which informed him that Bp. Hubbard was the leader of a homosexual network within his diocese. Shortly after being named as the writer of the letter, Fr. Minkler was called into the chancery and effectively intimidated into signing an affidavit denying he ever wrote it or knew anything about its claims.

Paul Likoudis of The Wanderer, who knew Fr. Minkler personally, recounts the incident:

“I signed it with mental reservations, and now I’m going to have to go to confession down in New York, because I can’t go in this diocese,” Minkler told me.

But in that long Friday evening conversation with this reporter, Minkler sounded scared. He recounted the day’s events, and feared that the disclosure of the letter he wrote to Cardinal O’Connor in 1995 — at the cardinal’s request — would be disastrous for him.

He asked for advice, and he was extremely apprehensive about a forthcoming meeting with Hubbard, set for Monday, February 16. I suggested that he pre-empt the meeting by holding his own press conference “and let everything out.” His response was that if he did that, “I’d be dead.”

On Monday morning at 7 a.m., Albany Catholic Bob McCauley called me, barely able to speak through his tears, to say Minkler was dead. He died early on Sunday afternoon, apparently of a heart attack.

The death now appears to have been a suicide.

After all the investigations of Bp. Hubbard, in which he denied all wrongdoing, an independent report he commissioned claimed there was no evidence for the various charges against him.

2. Fr. Alfred Kunz

Father Alfred J. Kunz was a traditional parish priest and widely esteemed canon lawyer, a pastor familiar with the Latin Mass whom modernist clergy typically resented. He had served the St. Michael’s community in Wisconsin for more than 32 years and served countless others through his weekly radio show, “Our Catholic Family.”

In early 1998, though, shortly after returning from a 10 p.m. recording of his radio program, he was violently murdered in a hallway inside his own parish school. His body, with his neck cut open, was found by a teacher. According to reports, death came as a result of excessive blood loss. Police suspect the killer was someone with whom Fr. Kunz was familiar, as there were no signs of a forced entry; indeed, all the doors were locked.

There are several competing explanations regarding Fr. Kunz’ still-unsolved murder, but according to Matt Abbott of Renew America:

The prominent theory is that Kunz was killed because he “knew too much.” About what? About the sexual misconduct of some men of the cloth. Men who were able to cover up their misdeeds for years, even decades. Men who formed the underbelly of the American Church.

Apparently, Fr. Kunz was well aware of the Gay Lobby. He’s on record telling a friend, “Never underestimate the power of this network.”

3. Fr. John O’Connor

Father John F. O’Connor (not to be confused with Cdl. John O’Connor, mentioned above) was a Dominican preacher who eventually became a professor of philosophy and theology at the univerity level. In the 1980s he wound up in his hometown of Chicago under Provincial Superior Fr. Donald Goergen. O’Connor and Goergen would find themselves in constant tension, however — an atypical state for Fr. O’Connor. Much of the tension revolved around Fr. O’Connor’s gradually earned reputation for battling a homosexual network in America, especially within the Dominican Order. Here’s an example from 1986:

 

That same year, Fr. O’Connor found out that Fr. Goergen, who had long wanted to see him removed, was planning on having him suspended. Then in 1987, following Fr. O’Connor’s mission preaching at a Chicago parish, complaints allegedly came swarming in against him to the city’s infamous Cdl. Joseph Bernardin. All indications at the parish had suggested a warm reception, however, and the cardinal refused to show copies of the complaints upon request.

Later that year, Fr. O’Connor informed Fr. Goergen that he knew a fellow priest who had personally witnessed the Provincial Superior engaging in homosexual acts with another Dominican. According to Fr. O’Connor, Fr. Goergen’s response was simply to say, “Homosexuality is becoming more acceptable now.”

After a series of attempts to silence Fr. O’Connor, including effectively threatening to send him to a psychiatric ward, Fr. O’Connor was officially suspended in 1989. The following year, the process for his formal dismissal from the Dominicans began, and he ended up being sentenced by the Master General in Rome to a period of prayer and reflection, along with an ordered visit to a psychiatric ward (which he refused). In 1991, after failed attempts by O’Connor to appeal his case to Rome, he was officially done with the Dominicans.

Father O’Connor finally left the order and lived with his sister until he died in 2006.

4. Fr. Matthew Despard

Father Matthew Despard is a Scottish priest who in 2013 published “Priesthood in Crisis,” a damning exposé of the gay lobby working within the Church in his home country. The book charges many within the Scottish hierarchy of either enabling or neglecting widespread abuse and bullying by homosexuals in their ranks, and was published around the same time that Cdl. Keith O’Brien of Edinburgh resigned after admitting to sexual improprieties. Not long after the book was released, Fr. Despard’s own bishop, Joseph Toal, suspended him and proceeded to initiate a canonical trial against him.

Last year, despite widespread shows of support from his parishioners, Fr. Despard was found guilty of defamation, kicked out of his parish and sentenced to three months of penance.

So, in the end, what can you expect if you speak out about the Homosexual Network corrupting the Church? You can expect to be doubted and persecuted. After all, not even in the fallout of the sex abuse crisis, where the vast majority of cases preyed on post-pubescent boys, does hardly anyone ever suggest the cause may be more than “pedophilia.” Yet despair is what those behind this evil desire from us, so we must always keep faith and hope in our Lord, and remember: “Blessed are those who suffer persecution in the cause of right; the kingdom of heaven is theirs” (Matt. 5:11).

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